


Men Of Letters Cultural Invasion

by herroyalgoddess



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural
Genre: Crossover, F/M, M/M, Men of Letters Bunker, Multi, Set ten years after the final battle, Timelines shifted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:12:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5276081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herroyalgoddess/pseuds/herroyalgoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione, Ron and Harry have been Men of Letters since the end of the Wizarding war. Dean and Sam find references to the bunker in an old trunk their father had left in a locker. When they find it they realise that they maybe slightly in over their heads and end up contacting the UK Men of Letters branch for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's quite clear that I don't have any rights to either Supernatural or Harry Potter, I'm just borrowing them for fun.

The day started out the same as any other for the Trio as they were affectionately known among their work colleagues, unless you’d been assigned a case work days were either spent searching for cases or depending on your work specific expertise,you either did weapons training, cataloging artifacts or translating lore from long forgotten texts, the ten years that passed had done nothing to diminish their love for the job.

“Guys, the boss wants to see us pronto.” Ron said sticking his head round the office/day room he shared with Harry and Hermione.

“Sounds serious, has something major gone down that we don’t know about?” Hermione asked while giving Harry a helping hand off the red settee he was lounging on.

“Thank God. I wouldn’t care if it was a simple salt and burn, I need to get out of this joint and fast” grumbled Harry as he followed his friends to their boss’s office.

Magnus Selby was a squib and had been the head of UK branch of Men of Letters for the past thirty years, he’d personally recruited the Trio just after the second downfall of Voldemort. He had a finger in every pie when looking for exceptional recruits, he didn’t discriminate and yet when he suggested to his cousin about potentially recruiting her favourite student who had not only gotten one of the best O.W.L results in recent Hogwarts history but had gone on to be instrumental in helping the boy who lived defeat Tom Riddle for good he had been told in no uncertain terms that if he had any of the trio helping to do his nefarious business he’d be onto a good thing, however if he really wanted results they worked best as a team. Now Magnus was not a man to turn down sound advise especially when it came from a no nonsense Scots woman who could still drink him under the table and then walk in a straight line if required, the very next day he’d offered them a six month trial period to see if they wanted a life doing what a Man of Letters did, ten years later he was sat in his office waiting to give them their most challenging job yet.

“About bloody time, sit yourselves down and Hermione because there’s no point asking these two idiots tell me what you know about the American Men of Letters branch” Magnus said in his gruff Scottish accent.

Hermione racked her brain for a minute or two before answering “Not much I’m afraid, it had been active right up to fifty eight when unfortunately the majority of it’s members got slain by an unknown entity, the only surviving member went into hiding helped by Janus Peterson the head honcho before you. Since then there has been no M o L activity in America, as far as I know America is still over run with dumb ass muggle hunters who have no regard for anything Supernatural and a if it’s not like us kill it mentality.” She snapped her mouth closed to stop her usual rant about hunters from spurting out.

Harry and Ron exchanged amused glances knowing how much it had cost her not to continue.   
“So Boss what’s this history lesson to us and does it involve us seeing sunlight any time soon?” Ron was fidgeting in his seat, he absolutely hated it when they were on downtime, always eager to be on the road as soon as he possibly could.

Magnus gave them a small smile and leaned back in his chair, he’d definitely chosen the right team for this next job. “You were quite right in your explanation Hermione except for the fact that the American branch has recently been reactivated, apparently two grandsons of a member who went missing around the time of the massacre stumbled across references to Men of Letters through his journal, they deciphered their grandfather’s journal and discovered the Bunker. It’s the American equivalent of here.” he clarified upon their unasked question. “I have been conversing with one of the brothers, he first got in touch using the old two wave radio, he told me that his grandfather was Henry Winchester and that the brothers were willing to take up the mantle of Men of Letters in honour of their grandfather.”

“Surely they can’t just do that. What about the statue of secrecy, I mean it’s not safe letting a couple of uninformed muggles around things that give even me the jeebies.” interrupted Harry.

“Normally you’d be quite right Harry, however the American branch worked slightly different to the rest of the world, they prefered using the legacy system which means as long as you have the right bloodline then you’re guaranteed a spot” Magnus refrained from cracking a smile as all three of the adults sat before him muttered for fuck sake under their breath “now as they have every right to be there, I decided the best course of action would be to work with them, the last thing we need is them to trigger Armageddon by touching something they have no knowledge about. Sam and his brother have agreed to me sending three of my best people across the pond to help them catalogue the Bunker’s inventory” He paused to allow the trio process the fact that they were ones off to America, once their initial excitement had calmed down, he dropped one final bombshell on them “There’s just one more thing you should know, Sam and Dean are also hunters, two of the best actually, from what I can gather from my sources over the water they don’t take too kindly to what they perceive as witches so that means no magic unless absolutely necessary. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Boss” they answered in unison and stood up ready to leave.

“Excellent, I’ll send Derek along with your mission log. You need to be at Heathrow by one am tomorrow as your flight leaves at two am, you’re flying business class so make sure you have the correct ids to cover your basic weaponry, anything else you need you’ll be able to pick up when you get to the Bunker. Any questions...No. Good, dismissed and remember to keep in touch.”

Hermione was still grumbling about hunters when they boarded the flight “I swear to God someone up there is laughing at me, the best assignment that we’ve had assigned in years falls in our laps and we have to deal with bloody hunters.”

Ron rolled his eyes and only with the stupidity and bravery that comes with knowing the other person so well did he utter the following phrase “For the sake of Merlin’s sweaty pants would you stop bitching, we don’t know what we’re going to find till we get there, so sit back, shut up and either enjoy the in flight movie or get some flipping sleep. I swear if I didn’t know better I’d swear it was that time of the month.”

Hermione waited until the air steward had finished checking their seatbelts before leaning over to slap Ron “It’s a good job you’re sat beside Harry instead of me Ronald Weasley otherwise you’d be getting off this plane with a few extra bruises, I firmly suggest that you don’t talk to me for the next fifteen hours or I’m going to tell Molly the real reason you turned up late for the barbecue last month.” Satisfied that Ron wasn’t going talk to her for the rest of the flight she leaned back in the rather plush seat and tried to forget her animosity towards hunters in general by discussing the mission log with Harry.


	2. Chapter 2

“God damnit Sammy, why the fuck did you agree for the Brits to come here again?” Sam rolled his eyes as he listened to Dean complain for what felt like the millionth time about the British Men of Letters contingency “And why did you have to pick them up in Baby? couldn’t you have told them to get a hire car or at the very least use one of the junker cars we stored in the garage.”

Sam took the phone away from his ear and exhaled deep calming breath before answering his brother “Dean we’ve been through this so many times I’ve lost count, you know it makes sense to have somebody who actually knows about this shit to help us go through the Bunker and as there is apparently nobody else here in the States who can help then as they say beggars can’t be choosers. Their flight landed twenty minutes ago they should be with me shortly so as long as the roads are clear you can expect us back roughly about seven, promise me you’ll play nice” he waited as the line went silent “Dean, I’m serious, play nice.”

“Fine, but I’m still going to check them the same as we would for anybody we didn’t know.”

“You know I don’t have a problem with that, look I’ve got to go people are starting to collect their bags.”

“Okay, if I find one scratch on Baby I’m taking it out of your ass. Bitch.”

“As if you could Jerk” Sam hung up on his brother with a smile and held up a sign that had M.o.L conference written on it. What ever he’d been expecting it certainly wasn’t three people who looked like every average gap year student he’d ever seen. This must be them as the petite brunette female jabbed the tall red headed man in his side and nodded in his direction, plastering what he hoped was a welcoming smile on his face he stepped forward and held his hand out to the short raven haired man who was a couple of steps ahead of his companions.

The smaller man grabbed his hand in a firm handshake and gave him a grin “One of the Winchesters I presume, the name’s Harry Potter but you can call me anything you like.”

Sam’s brain struggled to work as all his blood had momentarily flowed downstairs.

“God you’re such a tart Harry, honestly we’ve been in the country for less than hour and you’re already hitting on the locals. Just ignore him Mr Winchester, every body else does. I’m Hermione Granger and the big ginger git here is Ron Weasley.” She offered her hand out and giving him one of the firmest handshakes he’d ever received from a member of the opposite sex.

“Good to meet you mate.” Ron said slapping his arm in what Sam hoped was friendly gesture.

“Yeah, hi the name’s Samuel but everyone calls me Sam, Mr Winchester was my father. My elder brother Dean is back at the Bunker.” “Real smooth Sammy boy, a flash of green eyes, a cute accent and you’re swooning like a southern belle” Great, even his subconscious was starting to sound an awful lot like Dean. “The car’s just outside in the parking lot, would you like a hand with your bags Hermione?”

Hitching her rucksack further onto her shoulders “I can manage thank you Sam, but I’m sure Harry will let you carry his if you ask nicely”

“Hey! I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own bags thank you very much, although if Sam was that way inclined and asked me nicely I’d let him carry me instead.” Harry gave him an outrageous wink, his green eyes twinkling with mirth.

Sam laughed and led the way out of the airport. They were almost back at the bunker when Sam worked up the courage to ask the question that had been bugging him since he’d met the British trio “So what’s the deal with you three? you certainly don’t act like any co-workers I’ve met”

The three Brits exchanged glances, in the end it was Ron who spoke up “That’s probably because we’ve known each other since the first of September ninety one, we met on the train to Hogwarts... What the bloody hell was that for Hermi-...” 

Sam glanced in his rear view mirror in time to see Hermione giving Ron a pointed look that seemed to say shut your damn mouth, intrigued by what was going unsaid he decided to ask a few more questions. “So Harry, just who or what is Hogwarts or are you not allowed to tell me in case you get dragged off to the Tower for treason?” 

Harry snorted “Hogwarts is just the name of the private school we attended, we officially became best friends on our first Halloween together, seventeen years later we’re still best friends, although to be honest we’re more like an old married couple who are only still together because we can’t afford to split up, not to mention Hermione and I keep disagreeing on who should keep Ron because it’s inhumane to stick him in a shelter.”

The Impala filled with laughter as Ron pretended to be insulted, Sam pulled into the garage and turned off the engine. “Just before we go inside I thought I’d better warn you that while my brother can come across as rude and a bit of a dick, he does have a heart of gold, it just takes time for him to trust people.”

Sam lead the trio through the bunker to the main area that Dean and him used for research, his brother was sat at waiting for them at the long table and a tray sat in front of him with three glasses of holy water, five shot glasses, lime wedges, salt, tequila and his silver letter opener. “Dean, this is Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Guys this is my brother Dean.”

Harry and Ron just waved their greetings but it amused Sam no end when Hermione stepped forward with her hand held and said “Charmed, I’m sure.” she couldn’t have been more than 5ft7 and yet she stood there looking down her nose at him.

“Back up there Posh Spice, lets at least make sure you are who you claim to be” Dean gestured towards the table.

Sam cast an apologetic look towards the three Brits “Sorry, just got to cover our backs you know.” he pulled the top of his shirt to the side to reveal his anti possession tattoo.

“No worries, we’ve got our own body art too.” Harry and Ron lifted their shirts to reveal the same tattoo inked onto their ribs on their left side. “Hermione on the other hand is always a bit reluctant to show hers off.” the tall red head said with a shit eating grin that was directed at his friend.

Dean pulled his shirt down and flashed his tattoo to the group “Your turn Princess.” 

“Is it not enough that I managed to get out of the car that has a devils trap painted on the ceiling in UV paint?” she asked surprising both Dean and Sam, not even Bobby knew that was there.

“Come on Mione, it’s in the interest of good working relations” cajoled Harry.

The petite brunette turned and flashed a nasty look at her friend before unsnapping the buttons on her jeans to reveal her tattoo peeking out at the top of her left hip bone. “Satisfied?” She asked arching an eyebrow at Dean.

“Not quite Princess, let me know if the sight of blood makes you feel faint, Sammy would never let me hear the end of it if you fell and hurt that pretty little head of yours” Dean answered back, sneering ever so slightly at her. taking the silver letter opener and sliced his left forearm just hard enough to draw blood, wiping the blade clean on his shirt he offered it over handle first.

Sam could have sworn he heard Hermione mutter something along the lines of “Wanker” under her breath, he didn’t blame her for it either. On the other hand Harry and Ron didn’t seem to be bothered by Dean’s overly thorough investigation, maybe they were just more laid back than their friend. He was disturbed from his thoughts by his brother shouting at him.

“Yo Sammy, me and the ginger dude are heading into town to pick up food, while we’re gone you might as well show Posh Spice and Harry where they’re going to be sleeping.” 

Nodding to show that he’d heard him, Sam turned Hermione and gave her an apologetic smile “Seeing as there’s so few of us, I’ve given you rooms on the same floor as me and Dean, unfortunately they’re not en-suite but on the plus side there is more than one bathroom and the water pressure is amazing.” Sam was startled when Harry put his hand on Sam’s arm.

“It’s fine Sam, it’s a lot like our base back in England, besides we’ve stayed in worse places isn’t that right Hermione? As long as there’s hot water for a shower and some place to make a brew we’re happy bunnies. Please tell me you remembered to bring the t-bags.”

Assuming that last question was directed at Hermione, Sam kept quiet and focused the hand still on his arm.

“First thing I packed, hey Sam do you think you could point us in the direction of the kitchen next? I could murder a cuppa.”

Sam was quite happy to listen to the virtues of a decent cup of tea all night long if it meant he could ignore the tingly feeling he’d gotten when Harry had put his hand on Sam’s arm.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was in a rush when uploading this, so I'll try and fix any errors later on.

A month had passed uneventfully with everyone settling into a routine that mainly included Hermione and Sam holed up in the archives and Dean, Ron and Harry cataloguing weapons and artifacts.

Dean woke with a start, he glanced over at the art deco alarm clock sat on his night stand and groaned, it wasn’t even seven am. Well there went his plan for a lie in because he knew from past experiences that it was pointless to try and grab a few more hours sleep after waking due to having a nightmare about his time in hell, so he might as well go and grab some breakfast and then spend some quality time with Baby. He was in a world of his own when he wandered into the kitchen, he’d been thinking about whether he had enough wax for Baby in the garage or if he needed to pop into town first to buy some, it was only when something hard and round hit his arm did he realise he wasn’t alone. 

“Dude, what the hell!” Bending down Dean picked the offending orange and looked over in the direction it had come from, he grimaced at the cozy picture his brother and the English chick made bonding over crumpets and shit. “Seriously Sammy, what the hell is up with you?” he threw the orange back aiming for Sam’s head and was a bit pissed off when his brother caught it easily and put it back in the fruit bowl with a smug look on his face.

“How about having some consideration for other people and putting some pants on before you leave your room, nobody needs to see you in just your boxers it was bad enough you used to do that when it was just us.” 

Dean could tell that Sam was enjoying this far too much, there would be pay back. “Whatever Bitch, I’m sure even Posh Spice there can appreciate all of this grade A, prime beefcake and all American goodness that is yours truly. Whaddya say Princess, like what you see?” He flexed his muscles and waggled his eyebrows at Hermione.

“Come on man, you can’t be saying things like that to Hermione, it’s not cool.” Sam was beginning to get pissed at him.

Hermione got up from the table and placed her cup in the sink which happened to be right next to where Dean was stood, “It’s alright Sam, I mean if I was into knuckle dragging Neanderthals then I suppose Dean would be classed as kind of attractive. That being said..” she paused and deliberately looked Dean up and down before continuing “I’d lay off the pies for a bit if I were you Beefcake, they’re starting to show.” She then turned to Sam and said “I’ve just got to grab my trainers, I’ll see you at the side door in five.”

“See you in five” Sam acknowledged getting up from his seat and stretching “You know what you are Dean? You’re first class dick.” he said once Hermione had gone.

“Come on Sammy, it’s not like she doesn’t give me shit back.”

“That’s my point Dean, she shouldn’t have to go on the offensive. You don’t seem to have a problem with Harry and Ron, so why do you treat Hermione differently?” Sam looked down at his elder brother with disappointment in his gaze.

And there was the question Dean didn’t know the answer to, he certainly didn’t fancy her because his taste in women ran to busty babes looking for a good time and yet he couldn’t deny the satisfaction he got seeing Hermione giving as good as she got back, those whisky coloured eyes flashing with amusement or anger, or when she did her prim librarian impression and raised an eyebrow at him because he’d interrupted her. Yep, that look certainly didn’t excite little Dean at all. In true Dean fashion when faced with something he didn’t want to talk about he changed the subject completely “So where are you two nerds off to then at this time in the morning?”

Dean watched as Sam gave him bitchface number five, which meant that he’d drop the matter for now but it wouldn’t be forgotten in a hurry.

“Hermione asked if I knew any good places to run, so I’m taking her on the route I use along the river, maybe next time you could with us and burn off those pies.” Sam prodded Dean’s stomach for good measure “Yep, you’re definitely getting a pie belly.” and with a laugh Sam left the kitchen leaving Dean feeling his abs.

Dean scowled, he was not getting a pie belly he just needed to go on a few more hunts, he wasn’t cut out for a stationary lifestyle. Once Sam got back from his run, he’d mention about going hunting again. An image of Hermione in tight running shorts and sports bra, flashed in his head, her skin glistening with sweat...He shook his head to get rid of image, he needed to get laid and fast, he was going to his favourite pick up joint tonight whether anybody else wanted to go or not.

He brought the subject up over dinner “So I’ve been thinking...”

“You’d better be careful there Beefcake, we wouldn’t want those precious brain cells burning out, not when there’s so few of them to begin with.” Hermione interrupted, her voice dripping with fake sweetness and high fiving Sam across the table.

“Bite me Princess. As I was saying, I’m planning on going into town later on, I thought it would be polite to ask if anybody else would like to go. I’ll be honest with you Smokey Joe’s is a dive but the beer’s cheap, the music is half decent and they’ve got a pool table.” To Dean’s surprise everybody thought it was a great idea, even Hermione. “Awesome, be ready for nine because I will be going with or without you.”

Smokey Joe’s was exactly the way Dean had described and the British trio loved it, apparently it reminded them of their local back in London except for one added bonus it had a ‘proper old fashioned American’ jukebox.

Dean was amused by Hermione’s giddyness and followed her up to the jukebox “I don’t think you’ll find any Britney on there Princess.”  
“And that must make you a sad little bunny.” she patted his cheek in fake sympathy “On the plus side there is definitely some decent tunes to play pool to. Oi Sam! Rack em up, it’s me and you against Ron and Harry.” Hermione completely ignored Dean and the other customers who had turned to look at the petite brunette as she shouted to make her voice heard over the music that was currently playing, she rooted through her change for a couple of dollars and made her choice pretty quickly, then joined the rest of the group at the pool table not sparing a backwards glance for Dean who was still stood at the jukebox apparently staring off to space and definitely not thinking about how good Hermione’s butt in those skin tight jeans she was wearing.

Three games in and Hermione and Sam were the undisputed champions of pool having beaten all combinations of Dean, Ron and Harry. To be fair to Dean, Harry and Ron were absolutely rubbish at the game and he still wasn’t busy checking out her ass every time she bent over the pool table to take her shot.

“So Princess, you think you’re hot stuff with a pool cue do you?” The devil sitting on Dean’s shoulder was firmly in the driving seat now.

“I’m better than you sugar.” Hermione replied putting on a bad Southern belle accent.

Dean gave her a smile that was all teeth “Well at least we know what kind of stick you’ve kept up your ass all this time.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes “Which makes it all the more better when I beat your misogynistic lily white arse with it then isn’t it?”

Neither of them were paying attention to Sam, Ron and Harry who were busy placing bets on the outcome of the game. Of course Harry and Ron were on the side of Hermione, which meant Sam was betting on Dean only out of family loyalty of course and not because he thought Dean was actually going to win. 

Sam went to get another round of drinks from the bar, leaving Harry and Ron talking about Hermione and Dean.

“They’ve got it bad, I swear if they don’t give in to all this pent up sexual tension they’re going to kill each other.” Ron finished the dregs in his bottle “You’re not much better flirty McGertie, honestly any chance you get and you’re rubbing up against Sam like a cat in heat, did you ever think he might be straight and he’s just too polite to tell you to fuck off .”

Harry grinned at his best mate “I’m telling you Sam’s as bent as a nine bob note, it just takes the right man to bring it forth, in fact I willing to stake fifty galleons on Sam being willing, eager and dripping to get in bed with me before we leave the States. My gaydar never lies.”

Ron coughed the words “Oliver Wood, Archie from accounting.”  
“Fuck you Ron” Harry said smiling “So do you take my bet or not?”

Ron sighed and held his hand out “Fuck it, go on shake on it then. Bloody tart.”

“What are you betting on now?” asked Sam handing them a bottle of beer each.

“On who’s going to be first to snap under all of the sexual tension that’s built up in our merry little group, can’t you feel it growing Sammy? It’s getting bigger and harder and just begging to be released even as we speak.”

“Leave the poor lad alone, you’re such a dirty pervert you know that Potter. Now shut up and pay attention they’re just about finished.”

“Shut up Ron, Sam knows I was just talking about his brother and our Hermione, don’t you Sammy?” Harry asked giving him a wink.

The song on the jukebox changed and Hermione gave Dean a triumphant grin “You’re going down Winchester.”

“Is that so Princess, care to make it interesting and to prove that I can be a gentleman you can set the stakes.”

Hermione pretended to think about it and then got up close and personal to him trapping against the table, she snaked a hand around his head pulling it closer till his ear was level with her lips and whispered “If you win Dean I will give you the best God damn blow job you have ever recieved, believe me when I say that your dick will think it’s died and gone to heaven by the time it’s been sucked dry and I’ve swallowed every last drop of that Deany goodness.” She stepped back “However if I win and I will win, I want the sole control of Baby for a week.”

“Oh it’s on Princess.”

Sam gave a low whistle “She really goes for the jugular doesn’t she?”

“Yep that’s our Hermione, absolutely brilliant but scary as fuck when she wants to be, when she was eleven she once set one of our school professors coat on fire during a sports match and didn’t get caught. I actually think I first fell in love with her during our third year of high school when she punched the biggest dick in our year right in the face. Ahh good times, right Harry?” Rons face was lit up as he was reminiscing.

“Oh yeah, nothing like having a supposed murderer after you, to make you enjoy the little things in life.” replied Harry drily. 

“You had a murderer after you in your third year?” asked Sam incredulously

Harry choked a little on his drink, “You can’t expect me to tell you all my secrets straight away do you Sammy, that’s a story for another time and place. Besides don’t you want to watch my girl beat your brother?”

Back at the table they were both down to the black ball and it was Hermione’s shot, she was clearly enjoying herself as she bent over the table to find the perfect line. Satisfied she had the correct line she stood up and chalked her cue, while moving her hips and singing along to the the song playing on the jukebox.

“He said can I take you home, where we can be alone? Next we’re moving on, he was with me, yeah me. And we'll be moving on and singing that same old song, yeah with me. Singing, I love Rock and Roll, so put another dime in the jukebox baby. I love rock and roll, so come and take your time and dance with me.” Hermione blew Dean a kiss then took her shot sinking the black ball into the top pocket with a satisfying thunk. She laid her cue on the table and gave Sam, Ron and Harry a bow “And that boys is how you play a player. Sorry Beefcake better luck next time, it’s okay I won’t take the keys till tomorrow.”

To say that Dean was speechless was an understatement, he’d really underestimated Hermione and now he’d lost baby for a week, “Hey Princess how about double or nothing over poker and whisky back at the Batcave?”

Hermione laughed “You’re on, but as I’m completely shit at poker why don’t I supply the whisky, we’ve got a couple of bottles of the good stuff from home that we brought with us.”

Dean rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Drink up ladies and Posh Spice it’s poker time.

A.N: I don’t own the song I love Rock and Roll all rights belong to Joan Jett.


	4. Chapter 4

While the boys set up everything that was needed for poker, Hermione busied herself retrieving the firewhiskey from her room and then she went to get the tumblers from the kitchen. She’d looked in at least six different cupboards before finding them in one of the over counter cupboards and as her luck would have it, the glasses were on the top shelf and pushed right to the back. Well bollocking hell, it was times like this she really missed using magic, if she stood on the worktop she should just be able to reach them. Hermione had just placed one knee on the top of the counter and was just about to push herself up when she felt a firm body press up against her. Yep, just her fucking luck.

“Need some help there Princess?” his voice was low, deep and with just the right amount of gruffness that had the ability to turn Hermione’s knees to jelly. Dear Merlin, why did his voice have to sound so God damn sexy? 

As Dean reached up to retrieve the glasses, his body pressed in closer to hers, the way she was positioned with one knee up on the counter meant she could feel the way he filled his jeans with what felt like a bar of iron. Holy fuck! Hermione closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip to stifle the moan that was desperate to escape as he gripped her hip to steady himself as he reached the last glass.

Hermione could feel her cheeks flushing as the hand that gripped her hip gently pulled it far enough back so her knee came off the worktop but still kept her up against the counter, his dick pressing itself into her arse. She was going to hell Hermione was sure of it, as she couldn’t resist grinding down on it. 

Her fuzzy brain only registered the almost silent “Fuck!” as his breath tickled her ear, causing her to shiver involuntarily.

“Hey Hermione, do you need a hand? I forgot to tell you that the glasses were on the top shel-” Sam paused as he took in the scene in front of him, “I, uh- yeah, you know what, I think I hear Harry calling me.”

Hermione shivered again this time from the lack of body heat as Dean stepped away from her and left the kitchen with speaking one word to her. She grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey, unscrewed the cap and poured two fingers of it into one of the glasses before swallowing the amber liquid back in one mouthful, then poured herself another and knocked it back in the same way, hopefully if she drank enough she could attribute the shakiness of her legs to being almost comatose. 

“You planning on drinking the whole bottle there Mione?” asked Harry, casually leaning against the frame of the kitchen door.

“Only until I pass out and erase the memories from the past ten minutes. You got a problem with that Harry?”

Harry laughed and shook his head “Come on, Ron’s struggling to load your MP3 playlist onto Sam’s laptop, I’m worried he’s going to start channelling his dad and use words like ‘stupid electicit, magic, webby box’” he pushed himself off the frame and crossed the room to her side. Harry deftly stacked the glasses on top of each other, took a mouthful of firewhiskey straight from the bottle and swallowed, smacking his lips together for good measure. “You good?”

“Well I will be later on, if you catch my meaning.” Hermione replied taking the bottle back off him and headed out to join everybody else.

“Atta girl. Hey Mione”

She looked over her shoulder at him “What now?”

He gave a little shimmy and began singing “Sisters are doing it for themselves.” 

Hermione was still laughing five minutes later as she entered the library, with a quick glance across the room she noticed Dean and his intense stare. Well now if that wasn’t the most knicker wetting, fanny clenching look she’d ever been the recipient of, she’d be a monkey’s uncle. With a quick breath out Hermione regained her composure, “Harry if you’d be a dear and line up the glasses. Sam, Dean I feel obligated to warn you that this is pretty strong stuff, so unless you’re ready for the hangover that was born in the bowels of hell. Then I definitely recommend taking it easy.”

Dean snorted derisively “I’m positive that I can handle anything you drink Princess.”

With the glasses lined up Hermione poured two fingers worth into each. “Bottoms up lads.” she said picking up her glass and raising it in salute.

“Holy fuck! Is that stuff actually smoking?”Exclaimed Dean looking slightly horrified.

Hermione stared straight into Dean’s eyes, knocked her drink back without batting an eyelid and slammed it back onto the table. “That’s okay Sweetie, if you don’t think you can handle it, I won’t hold it against you or your yardstick for manly behaviour.” She picked up two glasses and offered them to the Winchester brothers“Come on boy’s, down the hatch and all that jazz, didn’t anybody ever tell you that it’s considered rude to let a lady drink alone.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” wheezed Dean as he made his way over to pat Sam on the back who was coughing and spluttering.

“Congratulations gents, you’ve survived your glass of firewhiskey.” Ron clapped both of the Americans on their back “Hermione if you could get Sam’s stupid laptop to play some music, then we can all kick back and relax because judging by these two’s dazed expressions I don’t think it would be fair to play poker.” Ron rolled his eyes at Harry’s pout.”

“Honestly Ron, it’s not Arithmancy, you just push a few buttons and...Voila!” Hermione pushed the laptop in the middle of the table and nudged Harry to refill her glass.

Dean had been feeling pretty fuzzy around the edges for a while now and although he’d had lost count of how many drinks he’d had, he was almost positive Hermione had matched him drink for drink and yet she there she was still looking fairly sober. He just wished she’d stop flashing those looks at him. He wished he could stop staring at her and wished to both Heaven and Hell that she would stop with the freakin’ sex noises, otherwise he was going to hack off Sam’s hands with the rustiest knife he could find.

*Ten minutes earlier*

“Hey Sammy, you’ve got big strong hands, you any good at giving neck massages? I’ve got this kink in my neck that I just can’t get rid of.”

“Um, sure. Why don’t you grab a cushion and sit on the floor in front of me and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks Sam, you’re the best.” 

*Now*

“Oh God yes...Mmmm. Harder Sammy, I won’t break...Sweet Jesus that’s the spot...Unfgh, again but deeper.”

“Knock it off Hermione, you’re giving me a boner and I don’t swing that way.” announced Harry loudly.

Dean could’ve kissed him, but instead he settled for stifling a moan of his own as she stood up, stretched her arms above her head and then out behind her back, the movement caused her t-shirt to stretch tight across her chest. Enough was enough. Dean instantly regretted his decision to get out of the chair he was sitting in as the room began to spin wildly around him. Fuck!

“You alright Dean?” his traitorous, handsy brother asked.

Not trusting himself to speak Dean grunted an affirmative, slowly making his way towards the hallway.

“Where are you off to, do you need a hand?”

“Jesus Sammy, what is this twenty questions? I’m going for a piss and no I don’t need a hand. If you’re so desperate to hold somebody’s dick other than your own why don’t you ask Harry, I’m sure he’d jump at it.” Dean pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off the headache he could feel beginning to grow.

He left the room as quickly as he could, he didn’t give a shit if he was being rude. Dean’s only objective was to make to the nearest bathroom before he lost the contents of his stomach. The last thing his brain played on a loop as he rested his head against the cool bathroom tiles was the way Hermione felt pressed against him and the noises she made during her massage off Sam, except it wasn’t Sam’s name she was calling out. It was his, and boy did he have it bad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan was to have Cas enter in this chapter, but the stubborn angel refused. Oh well, maybe he'll be more cooperative in the next one. In case of any confusion when Hermione says fanny she means it in the English sense of the word vagina not the American word for bottom.


	5. Chapter 5

Hermione groaned in pain as the pounding in her head was only made worse by the shrill ringing of her alarm clock, with a blind swing in the direction of the noise she succeeded in knocking it off the bedside table which in turn killed the noise. The pounding in her head intensified as she sat up and swung her legs out of the single bed, with a hand clasped to her head and with the notion that this was probably one of her more crappier ideas she pushed the blankets back and stood up.

Okay the room was spinning but it was only five steps to the dresser where she kept an emergency potions kit stashed hidden in among her underwear, she carried the kit everywhere, it was a throwback to the Trio’s year on the run hunting for Voldemort’s horcruxes. Hermione was the first to admit that a hangover potion probably wasn’t the most needed potion in a life and death situation but the way she felt right now death would be the easy option. Five steps she could do it, One. The room lurched like a ship in a storm. Two. three. On the fourth step in, Hermione had to clap a hand over her mouth as an aid to stop the nausea. Fifth and final step, she’d made it, with a quick pull the top drawer slid open and yet the kit was missing. Bollocks! Hermione was positive that she’d unpacked the kit and put it away, so if it wasn’t in her drawer where the bloody hell was it.

“Looking for this Hermione?” Ron’s voice came from the doorway behind her.

After gingerly turning around Hermione saw her red headed friend leaning against the wall by the door, dangling the kit off his index finger. “I’m too hungover for wankerish behaviour Ron, so hand it over and get what ever it is you feel the need to say over and done with so I can get a shower and then bury myself in the archives all day.

Ron handed over the flowery cosmetics pouch that contained the potions “You know I love you, but you also know as well as I do that we’ve always called each other out when the other person is in the wrong and well last night you went to far.”

“Ron, come on I wasn-”

“Hermione, I know that normally it’s you chewing out me or Harry but you need to listen to me. I don’t give a shit about whatever is or is not going on between you and Dean but we’re here to do a job and you crossed the line with the firewhiskey. No matter how high his tolerance for alcohol is. We all know that muggles can handle a couple of glasses but the two of you practically drank the whole bottle between you, in fact I’m impressed he managed to get himself to bed all on his own.”

“I didn’t make him drink the stuff” Hermione replied belligerently, uncorking the bottle that contained the hangover cure and swallowing it’s murky looking contents. “Bleugh.”

“You know I’m right, hence the bitchy attitude. Regardless of whether you kick his head in or get it on like rampant nifflers, you need to clear the air with him because we’re going to be here for at least another six months if not longer.” Satisfied Hermione would listen to him once she got off her high horse, Ron pulled her into a hug and pressed a kiss to her temple “Right, well I think that’s my monthly adulting quota reached, go grab your shower and I’ll see you later.” 

Ron had only been gone for a minute before he stuck his head back round the door, “I forgot to mention that Sam, Harry and I are headed out to check on a dodgy sounding medium a couple of towns over. If it turns out to be nothing we’ll be back later on today, either way we’ll give you ring. Try to play nice with Dean, as I imagine he’s going to be feeling as rough as old boots today.”

“I told you, I’m spending the day in the archives, we probably won’t even see each other. However if we do cross paths I promise to be my usual professional self, now bugger off and let me go brush my teeth, because it feels like I spent the night licking Fluffy”

“Love you too....Princess” Ron added as a parting shot and burst out laughing when he heard Hermione call him a ginger haired wanker in retaliation.

An hour later Hermione was showered, dressed and determined to be the bigger person, she tipped her spare hangover potion into a glass, giving it a quick swirl in an attempt to make it look less disgusting. Standing outside Dean’s door Hermione paused, took in a deep breath to steady her nerves and then knocked three times, well she did momentarily consider using the shave and a haircut knock but changed her mind because she didn’t think that the elder Winchester would appreciate it.

The door opened to reveal Dean looking extremely green around the gills “What?” he snapped, his voice was low and harsh, making him sound like a chain smoker with a forty a day habit.

“Here, it looks like shit but it’ll have you feeling better in no time” Hermione held the glass out for him to take.

Dean eyed the the glass suspiciously “Wasinit?” 

“Believe me, it’s better if you don’t know” she replied tamping down the urge to roll her eyes at him. “Look just do yourself a favour, swallow the damn drink, get a shower and meet me in the kitchen in about an hour where I’ll be serving the best full English you’ve ever had, well minus the black pudding because it’s disgusting.”

Dean grunted, took the glass and then closed the door in her face.

Feeling a hundred percent better than he had earlier, a freshly showered Dean was making his way to the kitchen, when his stomach growled as the smell of bacon frying hit his senses.

“You’re listening to KROR the home of classic rock, I’m your host Chuck Reynolds and up next is Pat Benatar singing Love is a battlefield.”

Hermione must like this song as the volume increased, Dean entered the kitchen and paused to watch Hermione singing along to the song as she finished plating up, he knew he should make his presence known but if he was honest with himself, he was enjoying the way her hips moved in time to the music.

“We are strong, no one can tell us we’re wrong. Searching our hearts for so long, both us knowing. Love is a battlefield. We’re losing control, will you turn me away or touch me deep insi-” Hermione paused as she saw Dean, she flashed him an embarrassed smile and leaned over to turn the radio off “Sorry about that, I can’t resist a classic rock song. You timed it nicely, now normally you’d wash this down with a gallon of strong tea but in light of your unsophisticated American palate, there’s a pot of coffee over there for you.” 

Dean rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, unsure how to act, not that he remembered much after getting home from the bar last night but he’d just got off the phone to Sam, who had basically ripped him a new one for being a douche to Hermione last night. “So this is a full English then?” He asked as she handed him a plate heaped with hot steaming food, not that it mattered of course because he was so freaking hungry he could eat a horse.

Hermione took her plate which had almost as much food on it as Dean’s and sat at the table “Well apart from the fact I had to make do with streaky bacon and there’s no brown sauce but it’s certainly the best English breakfast you’ll find this side of the Atlantic.” She looked up from her plate to find Dean staring intently at her. “Well eat up before it gets cold.” Hermione told him, hoping the heat she felt in her cheeks could be attributed to cooking.

Desperate to fill the slightly uncomfortable silence that had descended over the table Hermione attempted to fill it with the first thing that popped into her head “So it’s just us here today, Sam’s taken Harry and Ron to check out a dodgy medium a couple of towns over.”

“I know, I spoke with Sam. He’s positive that it’s just a fraud but he was getting a case of cabin fever.” Dean shovelled a fork full of bacon and fried egg into his mouth and chewed, a thoughtful look came over his face but he waited until he’d finished what he was eating before asking Hermione what was on his mind. “So Princess, mind if I ask you a question?”

Hermione arched an eyebrow at him over her mug of tea “Will you stop calling me Posh Spice and Princess if I say yes?”

Dean flashed her a trademark Dean Winchester smile that made his green eyes light up “Nope, but you can give me a nickname if you like.”Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes at him. “Where did you learn to play pool like a pro?”

Hermione placed her cup back on the table and leant back in her chair “There’s not much to tell, both of my parents were dentists who owned their own practise and up until my third year of boarding school I spent most of my school holidays with my grandparents. My granddad taught me how to play snooker because he said I wouldn’t be able to appreciate life if I kept my head buried in my books, so he used to take me down to the local snooker hall and after he taught me the basics he told me for every game I won, he would take me up town and buy me a new book.” 

Dean burst out laughing “You became good at snooker for books? You were such a nerd.”

Hermione pretended to be offended “Sod off.”

“You mentioned your parents were dentists, did they retire?” Dean was beginning to realise that there was a lot more to the petite Brit who was sat across from him than she let on and heaven help him, he wanted to scratch the surface.

“No, they were murdered by the same religious zealots who killed Harry’s parents when he was a baby, it happened a couple of weeks before my eighteenth birthday. I’d managed to arrange a safe house for them but the day before the extraction, six of the bastards turned up at their dental practise and blew it up killing both my parents, their employees and five customers, one of which was a seven year old girl.” Hermione stood up and carried her plate and mug over to the sink, placing them into the soapy bubbles. 

“I’m sorry Hermione.” Dean scraped his untouched beans into the bin.

Hermione gave him a brittle smile that didn’t reach her eyes “You don’t have to be sorry Dean, it wasn’t your fault. Besides I made sure they paid for it.” she turned away and concentrated on washing the plates in the sink.

He handed her his plate, a small frown appeared on his face “You make it sound like you fought in a war against them.”

“It could sound like that I suppose. Well that’s the washing up done, are you okay to finish the drying? As there’s an ancient Sumerian scroll regarding the birth of demons that I want to try and translate before the boys get home.” Hermione asked emptying the sink.

Dean’s frown grew deeper at the abrupt subject change but he agreed to finish the drying any way “Can I at least call you G.I. Jane now?” Hermione’s response was to flip him the bird with both hands causing him to chuckle,the Brit had balls he’d give her that.

A couple of hours later Dean went in search of Hermione and found her busy scribbling notes “Yo Princess, you fancy a trip into town to get supplies? I’ve just spoken to Sammy, the medium was a hoax so they’re on their way back. I thought because it’s going to be a nice evening we could have a barbecue down by the river.” 

“That sounds like a plan, but you’re forgetting one little thing” Hermione crossed the room and stood directly in front of him.

Dean looked down at her “And what might that be Princess?”

Hermione smiled sweetly and placed a hand on his hip to keep him still while her other hand reached into his front jeans pocket to snatch the Impala keys “I’m driving.” with a wink she let go and headed off to garage leaving Dean wondering what the hell had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure you all know that I don't own Love is a battlefield sung by Pat Benatar and written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman.


	6. Chapter 6

“You are incorrigible Dean Winchester. Honestly I can’t believe you flirted with the elderly cashier, do you have no shame?” Hermione asked trying to hold back a smile as she loaded the last of the shopping bags into the back of the Impala.

“Pleading the fifth over here. Besides I brightened her day, isn’t that a community service or something?” Dean replied with a grin, closing the boot.

Hermione slid into the drivers seat and turned the key in the ignition, enjoying the Impala’s growl. Dean had a slightly unhappy look on his face as he got into the passengers seat.

“You know this feels unnatural right?” He told her while trying to not look like he was gripping his seat tightly as Hermione pulled neatly out of the mall parking lot.

Hermione laughed “Relax Dean. While I’ll admit she’s a gorgeous sounding car, Baby is only an automatic, which is great out here on your long American roads, but you ever come across the pond, you’ll have to take my Bessie out for a spin.”

Dean snorted “Bessie? What kind of pansy ass name is Bessie for a car?”

“And Baby is better is it?” Hermione countered “for your information Bessie is a Series three Jaguar E type in British racing green. She was my dad’s pride and joy, I’ve had to leave her in storage while we’re over here, but no matter, Baby’s a good substitute. Oh stop your pouting you big overgrown manchild and tell me where we’re going.”

“I’m not pouting and you need to take the next left up ahead, the picnic area is just after the turn off.”

Hermione was lying on her stomach on the grass reading a paperback novel she’d bought back at the grocery store and Dean was preparing the steaks on the disposable grills when Sam’s dark blue Ford pulled up, it’s occupants spilled out of the car with loud greetings

Ron bounded over to Hermione excitedly “Hey Hermione guess what I bought? It was an absolute bargain.”

Hermione sighed, closed her book and rolled over offering him her hand so he could help her up. “Did you spend all your pocket money on sweets again Ron? Harry what have I said about letting him have sweets before dinner? We’ll never get him to bed now.” 

“You know what he’s like, I blame Sammy for indulging him” Harry replied joining the group.

“Saaam.” Hermione sent Sam who was looking bewildered by the trio’s exchange a mock glare.

“Oh sod off the pair of you, anybody would think you’re practising comedians. As I was going to say before we set off back I nipped into this dirty looking thrift?” Ron looked over at Sam who nodded “shop, it’s kinda like a charity shop but not, if you know what I mean”

“I know what a thrift shop is Ron, get on with the story before Gordon Ramsey over there ends up burning the steaks.” Hermione said with a quick roll of her eyes and a wink at Dean.

“Well if you’d shut up for a minute Woman, maybe I couId. I was only in the shop five minutes when I found this beauty.” he whipped out a dusty old classic guitar from behind his back. “She’s been a bit neglected but she still sounds like a dream, she was an absolute bargain, can you believe she was only thirty dollars?”

“Easily” quipped Dean with a chuckle “Well you must have smelled the meat cooking because grubs up. ‘Cept you Sammy, the rabbit food is over on the table.”

“Bite me, Jerk.” Sam said grabbing a plastic fork and spearing the steak he knew Dean would have chosen.

Dean crowed triumphantly and showed everybody his plate which looked like he had half a dead cow on it “Ha! Screw you Bitch, I’d already chosen this beauty back in the store.”

“I don’t know why you’re all laughing, I was worried he was whispering sweet nothings to it before it had even been paid for, and that was before he flirted with the septuagenarian cashier. ”

“There’s no need to get jealous Sweetheart, if you want a piece of this you just need to ask nicely.” he winked at her.

“Well it looks like you two ironed out your differences while we were gone” Harry commented with a smirk.

Sam turned to Harry and Ron “That reminds me, pay up. You two were adamant that we’d come back to find Dean hogtied with an apple in his mouth.”

Grumbling the two male Brits handed over ten dollars each, after more good natured ribbing the group consumed the picnic and were just enjoying listening to Ron strum at his newly acquired guitar.

Ron had just begun to play an old Beatles tune, when Hermione leaned over and kissed the top of his head before hugging her knees to her chest with a soft sad smile on her face.

“Are you okay?” asked Sam

Hermione nodded “This song just reminds me of a old-” she paused to think of the right word “of an old friend.”

Harry got up from his spot next to Sam, moving to sit next to Hermione and wrapped his arm around her “You know he’s probably spinning in his grave because you called him your friend.”

Hermione snorted “You’re right, Severus was a lot more complicated than that.” she raised her beer bottle skywards “If you are listening Severus, you grumpy git then I apologise for simplifying what we had into the category of friendship.” 

“So was this Severus dude your boyfriend?” enquired Dean, tamping down the small flutter of jealousy in his chest.

“He was their teacher at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” A gravelly voice said from behind them “Hello Dean, Sam. I didn’t realise you knew Harry Potter and his friends.”

The group jumped up with a mixture of confusion and anger, the British trio had pulled their wands and were focussed on the blue eyed stranger in their midst, while Sam and Dean were pointing their guns at the trio.

“Hold up Cas, what do you mean Witchcraft and Wizardry? What the fuck is going on? And why the fuck are you three pointing sticks at Cas?” demanded Dean in a low growl.

Harry stepped forward “I’m sorry Dean, but first I need to know who your friend is and how he knows about Hogwarts?”

“Put your weapons away, you do not need them among friends. I have heard much about you Harry Potter from my best friend Balthazar, he has walked beside you through the many trials of your young life. To answer your question, I am Castiel. Angel of the Lord.” Castiel turned to the Winchesters “These three humans were born with a magical core residing in them, they are what you would call natural Wizards and Witch.”

Dean cocked his gun and steadied his aim at the trio but he looked directly at Hermione when he said “You’ve got thirty seconds to explain what Cas is saying before I do to you what I do with every demon lovin’ witch and gank ‘em.”

Hermione bared her teeth in a snarl “Sam get your brother under control before he wishes he’d never opened his mouth.”

“It’s okay Hermione we’ve got this.” reassured Harry “Okay, we’ll tell you what you need to know, but you need to put the guns away we’re not a threat and you know we’re not. As for you, Castiel is it? I have questions for you if you wouldn’t mind sticking around to answer them.?”

The Angel flashed him a beatific smile “Of course Harry, I would be happy to.” Castiel, to the complete surprise of the entire group flashed everyone back to the bunker minus their weapons.

“What the hell Cas, where’s my damn gun? And more importantly where’s my damn car?” Dean demanded to know, frantically patting his body searching for anything he could use as a weapon.

Castiel turned his intense blue gaze on the oldest Winchester “This is a conversation that is better had in privacy and comfort, so I brought you back here. I would never harm your Baby, I have put the car in the garage. I took the liberty of placing all of the weapons in your rooms, they are not needed. Do you doubt that I would allow anything or anybody to harm you Dean?”

Sam laid his hand on Dean’s arm “If they were going to kill us they’ve had plenty of chances, we should at least hear them out before we decide to do anything.” taking his brother’s stony silence as acquiescence. “I think it’s best if you explain everything Cas has just said and why you kept it from us.” he told the British trio.

“I would have thought that was obvious with Mr shoot first and ask questions later over there” Hermione muttered under her breath.

“Sorry Witch. Did you say something? because I didn’t quite catch that.” Dean had averted his gaze from the angel and was back to glaring at Hermione.

“Not actually helping here Mione, we knew that we’d probably have to explain it to them some day, but we were outed before we had to make the choice.” Harry and Hermione exchanged a look that contained a full blown debate but eventually Hermione huffed and looked away. Harry ran a hand through his messy black hair, just when he thought the shit storm that was his younger years held no more surprises, Fate just comes along and kicks him in the nuts. They had briefly covered the basics of angel lore during their Men of Letters training, basically you treat them with respect and don’t piss the virtually impossible to kill beings off. If this Castiel has anything to add about his formative years then it wouldn’t kill him to listen.

“I suggest you all make yourself comfy because, this story is worthy of at least seven books” Harry made his point by parking his bum in the nearest chair and waited for everyone else to follow his example.

“Bagsy not explaining everything.” Ron declared triumphantly sitting in the chair next to his best friend.

“For Gods-” Hermione cast an apologetic glance at the now seated angel “Sorry, heavens sake Ron, do you have to be so childish at the most inopportune time? As it’s mainly your story Harry you might as well tell it.” She glanced at her watch “Look it’s nearly four am back at home, I’m going to see if I can get in touch with the boss and let him know what’s going on. Just shout if you need me, I’ll just be outside in the hallway” at Dean’s suspicious glare she added snidely “You’re more than welcome to listen if you’re worried I’m going to start cavorting with demons just to kill you, or you could stay there and listen to the truth”

Harry pulled a face at Hermione “Throw me to the wolves why don’t you? Oh and for now lets not mention feathers over there to Magnus, we’ve enough on our plates as it is.” Hermione nodded and quietly slipped out of the room as Harry began to tell his tale.

“Derek stop being an arse and patch me through to the boss, I’ve been trying to get through to you lot for the past hour and a half, there’s supposed to be somebody manning the phones at all times...Listen, I don’t give a monkey’s left tit if he is in the middle of debriefing Jake and Septimus, just put me bloody through....Derek I swear to all that is great and good in this world, that if you don’t connect me to Magnus immediately then the next time I see you I’m going to personally rip your scrotum out via your tonsils, do you understand?....Sorry for the call boss, I thought you should know that the Winchesters have found out that we’re magical,.....I’m sorry Magnus it was my fault, I accidently left one of my old school books lying around when I was translating some runes and the younger Winchester found it....Yes Sir, I understand that it was reckless of me, I apologise....Yes Sir, Harry’s explaining everything as we speak, understandably the hunters were concerned due to their own experiences with muggles who invoke magic through demons....Okay Boss, I’ll let the boys know to send you an email.” Hermione pressed the end button, closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the cool grey chequered tiles in an effort to ease the headache she could feel building.

“It’s good to know your people skills are the same with the folks back in Blighty as they are here.”

“What do you want Dean?” Hermione asked wearily, not bothering to look at him.

“Was that a potion you gave me this morning?”

Hermione sighed and steeled herself for the angry rant she was sure Dean was going to spew “Yes Dean it was. I brewed it myself and it’s name unsurprisingly is the Hangover potion. I only offered it to you because I had to take one myself, firewhiskey hangovers are the absolute worst.”

The silence in the hallway seemed to stretch on forever, Hermione opened her eyes and turned her head thinking that Dean must have accepted her explanation and just left her alone in the hallway to rejoin everybody else in the library only to find him standing just a foot away, leant against the wall with his arms folded just staring at her.

“Was there something else you wanted Dean?” She asked, wishing she hadn’t looked directly into those sea green eyes of his.

The eldest Winchester rubbed a hand along the back of his neck “I just wanted to apologise for being a dick earlier and to say thanks for this morning.” he paused for a second before continuing “You look beat Hermione, why don’t you get some rest and I’ll tell the others you’ve gone to bed.”

Well you could have knocked Hermione down with feather, it was all she could do to just nod in agreement at his suggestion. She was still struck silent as Dean told her goodnight and left her standing there alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well this chapter was an absolute git to write, firstly there was a power outage in my area leaving me without electricity for three days and then I had to re write it a couple of times till I was satisfied, hopefully you lovely readers will enjoy this chapter. Xx


	7. Chapter 7

Hermione was brushing her teeth the next morning when her mind wandered to the soft intensity of Dean’s gaze last night in the hallway, she was used to the way they blazed with such ferocity when they had spats and she lov-, no scratch that. She liked to see Dean lose the harshness around his eyes and mouth when he was relaxed and happy which usually happened when he was joking with Sam. 

She certainly wasn’t going to think about the look he gave her two nights ago from across the library, because by Merlin’s saggy pants that was a stomach flipper. She rolled her eyes at her reflection then rinsed her mouth out with water spitting the toothpaste mixture into the porcelain sink. Hermione knew what her problem was and all she needed to solve it was a long hot bath, a glass or three of wine and her favourite fantasy involving Captain Kirk, Spock and her all alone on the bridge of the Enterprise. 

Not that she had time to indulge in that at the moment, she had to go and get the low down from Harry and Ron about last night, sure she could have stayed but she felt it was one of her better decisions to deal with Magnus than be in the same room as Dean as they discussed witch craft and magic, admittedly Hermione did feel just a little bit sorry for Derek who received the short end of her temper last night, but then again it was probably for the best considering he was on the other end of the phone four thousand miles away, rather than a certain green eyed hunter who seemed to instinctively know which buttons to press. Oh for fuck sake. There she went again thinking about Him, she needed caffeine and she needed it as soon as possible, ideally by the bucket load.

After sticking her head in both Harry’s and Ron’s bedrooms and finding them both empty, she figured that either they were both up already or they’d ended up crashing in another part of the bunker, her money was on the still asleep theory. Hermione was headed to the kitchen when she heard Ron’s distinctive rumbling snore coming from the room the Winchesters had dubbed the beanie screenie room. 

One of the first things the brothers had done once they had decided that the bunker was going to become their permanent base was to buy half a dozen giant bean bags and the largest television they could afford and stuck them inside a medium sized empty storage room. Hermione tended to avoid the room as a rule just because it was Dean’s second favourite room after the kitchen, she opened the door, took a look inside and immediately wished she hadn’t, as the stench of four grown men nightly body odours made her stomach heave and brought a tear or two to her eyes.

Whipping out her wand Hermione simultaneously cast an air freshening charm on the room and a bubble head charm on her self just so she could check that nobody had passed out from the toxic gasses that been produced during the night. Hermione smirked at the cute couple Harry and Sam made, even if nothing was actually going on between them, at some point during the night their bodies had arranged themselves into the big spoon, little spoon position and were as close as two people could get without actually touching. Ron was flat on his back as was the norm with him, which was also the root of his snoring problem and the other Winchester was currently sprawled face down across two of the black bean bags, it looked like he was-. Oh. Hermione felt heat infuse her face and her mouth go dry as her brain caught up with the fact that Dean was actually grinding into the cushion in his sleep.

_“Fuck me, that’s hot. You could bounce a galleon off that arse and that hip action is just pure sin and I should know. Unfgh! Can you imagine being under all that and then grabbing his arse to pull him deeper.”_ the devil on her shoulder was salivating and fanning itself .

Hermione reluctantly looked away because she wouldn’t live it down if anybody woke up and found her staring at Dean the way a starving dog eyes a meaty bone.

_“Hehehe meaty bone. You certainly wouldn’t mind eating Dean’s meaty boner.”_

Why her slutty self concious had to sound like Harry she had know idea, she just wished it would shut up. Hermione decided that everybody needed to get up, so she left to make tea, coffee and toast for everybody.

Hermione returned and stuck her head round the door with some trepidation, luckily the air still smelt fresh. She stepped over the still not quite spooning bodies of her best friend and the youngest Winchester, with a quick glance around the room she cursed her rotten luck that the only available surface to put her fully loaded tray down on was on the other side of Dean ‘bean bag humper’ Winchester. Somebody upstairs or down below for that matter, truly hated her because at the exact moment she was carefully leaning over him to put the tray on the coffee table, Dean rolled over and was watching her every movement from beneath hooded eyes. 

Oh God help her. Hermione just couldn’t resist looking in the general direction of Dean’s crotch, before sliding her gaze upwards over his torso and then onto his face to meet a pair of amused green eyes head on.

“See something you like Princess?”

Yep, that sleep roughened voice did nothing to her insides. ‘Come on Hermione, pull yourself together. Morning wood is just a biological fact, you’ve lost count of the amount of times you’ve wandered into the boys room to be faced with tented blankets.’ Hermione gave herself a stern internal pep talk ‘Just treat him the way you would Harry, Ron or any of his brothers... _Well there was that one time or two with Charlie..._ Seriously not helping,’ she scolded her inner hussy for bringing up inappropriate memories. Hermione placed the tray down as gently she could without betraying the fact that her hands were trembling slightly. 

Hermione took a mug of steaming tea and a slice of toast off the tray, before returning her gaze to his, but this time she blatantly looked him up and down as if he was stallion for sale at auction. Hermione deliberately took her time to check out the way those jeans hugged his muscular thighs and the way his AC/DC t-shirt had ridden up to show a glimpse of that oh so tempting V that disappeared below the waistband of his dark blue jeans, raising her gaze higher till she was staring into his eyes. With a tiny bite of her bottom lip for extra effect Hermione gave him the wickedest smile she had in her arsenal, and boy did she love the power trip she got from the way his pupils dilated at her actions.

“Oh Dean, I see nothing here that has the potential to keep my attention, but they do say God loves a trier or is that grower? I forget.” 

Hermione watched with wide eyed anticipation as he trailed long tanned fingers over his chest down towards the prominent bulge trapped beneath tight denim “I think the princess does protest too much” Dean spoke in a soft voice that just oozed sex, He gave her a lazy, confident smile, taking his time to adjust himself into a more comfortable position.

“Whatever helps you sleeps at night” Hermione replied sarcastically, before mentally slapping her forehead as that phrase triggered high definition replays of Dean humping the bean bags from earlier. Enough was enough she needed to wake the others just so they could act as a buffer between her and Dean, not to mention she still needed to debrief her boys about last night. 

Holding her mug of tea and toast in one hand, she placed two fingers in her mouth and blew an ear piercing whistle and channelled her inner Ginny “Come on boys, get off your cocks and put on your socks, day’s a wasting.” she said in a sing song voice quite loudly. Hermione was rather amused to noticed that Sam had sat up like a bewildered meerkat and had dragged Harry into the safety of his arms while looking around wildly for the source of the noise, “Good morning sleeping beauties, there’s tea, toast and coffee on the table over there I suggest you partake in them before they go cold because I’m not making any more.”

“Bog off ‘Mione it’s too early.” Ron grumbled flopping back down on his beanbag with a groan. 

“Urgh. It feels like I only closed my eyes ten minutes ago” grunted Sam who had laid back down with his eyes shut pulling Harry with him obviously not realising he still had his arms around the smaller man, or maybe he did who knows. Harry on the other hand was wide awake with a big shit eating grin on his face and just allowed himself to be snuggled.

“It’s nearly eight... Oh honestly, I don’t know why I even bothered to be nice and make you lot breakfast. When you gits can be arsed to move, I’ll be either in the archives or in the armoury doing some target practise and just so you know I’m taking the toast with me” Hermione turned round, picked the toast rack up and was halfway down the corridor when a warm hand on her shoulder made her pause.

“Hermione, hold up for a sec would ya.” 

Holding in the sigh she wanted to release, Hermione turned sideways slightly and arched an eyebrow at Dean inquisitively “Is there something I can do for you Dean?”

Dean flashed her his trademark panty dropping smile “Sure there is Sweetheart, but for now I’ll settle for a couple of slices of toast.” with a devilish wink he helped himself to the toast before sauntering back in the direction of the lounge.

Hermione was deeply immersed in a scroll regarding vampiric lore and Vlad the Impala and hadn’t realised Harry and Ron had entered the archives until they sat on either end of her table essentially trapping her in the middle.

“Wotcha beautiful, we bring sustenance to fuel that mighty brain of yours.” Ron said as he produced a chicken salad sandwich and a cold bottle of soda with a over dramatic flourish.

“But that’s not all. Oh no, wait for it...Ta dah!” Harry produced a huge slice of chocolate cake, “Sam nipped into town earlier to run a couple of errands and picked a slice up for you.”

Hermione eyed Harry suspiciously “And why would he do that?”

“We may have worried him a little bit last night when we told them about your antics in school” Harry replied picking chocolate curls off top the cake and popping them in his mouth.

“My antics?” Hermione was incredulous “if I got up to anything nefarious it was because I was busy trying to saving your scrawny arses.”

Ron grinned “It didn’t help when you pulled a Ginny on us this morning, I think you gave the poor bloke a mini heart attack. Thanks to you poor Harry here was Sam’s cuddle bunny for ages.”

“Well Harry should thank me then and stop eating MY damn cake” Hermione ignored the sandwich and popped a forkful of cake in her mouth “Mmmm, this is heaven, so what’s the news from last night.”

Harry rubbed a hand over his face “I told them everything from Voldie’s birth to his fake demise at my hands as a toddler and then everything that happened afterwards right up to Men of Letters because we already covered that when we first got here. Dean and Sam actually took it pretty well once they got their heads around the fact there are natural magic users that don’t practise that Wiccan shit, or get their power from demons.”

“Everything? You told them everything! Please tell me you didn’t tell them about the time I turned into a cat.” Hermione looked horrified at the thought of Dean knowing about her time as a cat, she really didn’t want any pussy jokes sent her way.

“You worry too much, as I was saying the Winchesters dealt with everything we told them pretty well, we showed them a couple of simple spells and first year transfiguration stuff. I did promise to show them a proper wand fight if you’re up for it at some point soon, it was Ron’s idea and we didn’t think you’d mind as we could all do with getting some sparring in to stop us getting rusty.” 

Hermione shrugged it might be good for Dean to see how deadly she actually was out in the field, like all wizards and witches in the M.o.L she could wield both her wand and non magical weapons with deadly accuracy, they didn’t like using brute force unless it was absolutely necessary and sometimes it was. “That’s fine just tell me when and where, so what did Castiel have to say about his angel friend?”

Harry sighed and ate the last of Hermione’s cake “Basically, Dumbledore knew absolute jack about how Quirrel died or anything else that he attributed to my mother sacrificing herself for me, the only thing he got right was that it was her sacrifice that stopped Voldie the first round. But as for Quirrel, it was my guardian angel who was there in my times of dire need, apparently he got in trouble with the angels in charge for jumping in far too often.” he barked a small bitter laugh “Oh yeah and that time when I thought I was talking to Dumbles in Kings cross when I was supposed to be dead, I was actually talking to Balthazar in heaven, Castiel said that Balthazar got into big trouble for that one.”

“Dean found this hilarious, because apparently Castiel gets in trouble all the time for disobeying direct orders regarding the way he interacts with the brothers, he thinks it serves the feathery, interfering bastards right, to have the only people whose angels have rebelled for them team up.” Ron laughed as he remembered something “Oh yeah, Dean’s angel called Harry an assbutt for not seeing the truth when it hit him in the face and then he used what Dean and Sam called Cas’s angel mojo to show him everything how it properly happened.”

Harry scowled at Ron “Since when do angels swear? I thought they just sat around on fluffy clouds and played harps.”

“I don’t recommend saying that to his face Harry, if you get smited by an angel, I don’t trust even your dumb luck to come back from that one” Hermione’s Professor McGonagal impression made her boys laugh, which was her intention. 

“So what did you say to Magnus last night?” enquired Ron.

Hermione screwed the top off her soda and took a long swig before answering “I told him that Sam discovered one of my old ancient runes textbooks that I’d accidently left lying around, he chewed me out for a bit then agreed it was all for the best. You know what he’s like, all bark and no bite.” Hermione paused to have another drink “Are either of you ever going to tell me how the four you ended up passed out in the lounge?”

“That’s man business and not for your delicate ears Woman.” 

The trio looked up to see Dean with his green army duffel bag standing by the door.

“Well get a move on Scoobies, Sam just got a call from a hunter three states over who’s got a bum leg and a poltergeist trashing the local high school. We roll out in thirty minutes, Princess you’re with me in Baby, Huey and Duey you get to rock up in Sam’s crap mobile. Well come on lets go.” Dean practically skipped out of the room, buzzing with the excitement of going on a hunt.

Hermione shook her head in amusement “Well you heard him, lets go”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well I’m happy to have this finished before Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful festive season whatever your beliefs. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter because I had a lot of fun writing it.


	8. Chapter 8

The Impala had been on the road for a couple of hours, Hermione had been more than happy for Dean to take over the driving on this journey, for two reasons, despite the terms and conditions of their bet. One, it meant she could get up to speed on the case notes they’d been sent by the other hunter and two, Hermione didn’t feel comfortable navigating the back roads that Dean preferred. 

Dean was enjoying the companionable silence, Baby was eating up the miles and it was nice to listen without having to watch Sam pull bitch face number sixty as Dean played his favourite driving tapes. He was tapping his thumb against the steering wheel in time to REO Speedwagon’s Back on the road again when his personal mobile that he’d thrown into the glove compartment began ringing. Dean flashed the ringing glove compartment an irritated look, they’d just hit a busy patch of traffic and was trying to concentrate on the road ahead. “Hermione, could you answer that for me?”

“Do I look like your secretary?” She shot back.

Dean refrained from replying but smirked at her question, he could hear the humour in her sarcastic tone.

“The caller id says Ellen. Do you still want me to answer it?” She asked her thumb poised over the green button.

He nodded, wondering what Ellen could want and turned the music down.

“THEY’RE CALLED TURN SIGNALS FOR A REASON, USE THEM JACKASS!” Dean shouted at the car that had just pulled in front of him, causing him to slam on his brakes.

“Hello, you’re through to Dean Winchester’s phone, how can I help?”

Dean tightened his grip on the steering wheel as his dick perked up with interest at Hermione’s more refined phone voice.

“One moment please, I’ll pass on the message.” Hermione turned to Dean and covered the mouthpiece with her palm “She says she needs to talk to you urgently, it’s about somebody called Jo, she seems quite distressed.”

“You’d better stick her on speaker.” Hermione nodded to show she had done what he asked and held the phone near his face to make it a little easier for him to hear over the rumble of the engine “Jo you’re on speaker, what’s wrong?” 

Dean listened carefully as a tearful Ellen explained about having an argument with Jo a week ago over her going off alone on a hunt, Jo had told her that she was going to a friend’s but she hadn’t been seen since and because it was peak tourist season she couldn’t afford to close the bar to search for her. The only information she’d been able to dig up was that Jo was investigating a nest of vampires in the next county that was feeding off young girls using the Twilight storyline.

He couldn’t help but smack the steering wheel in frustration, he loved Jo like a little sister but why the hell didn’t she ring either Sam or himself if she needed help. Dean promised to ring Ellen back just as soon as he’d spoken to Sam and motioned to Hermione to hang up. As luck would have it there was a little roadside diner just up ahead, after he had pulled in and switched the engine off Dean rang Sam’s phone and left a message with Ron to tell Sam to pull in when they neared the diner.

In a secluded corner booth the British trio sat and talked quietly among themselves as Sam and Dean sat next to them arguing over what they were going to about the hunt they had taken on and looking for Jo. Dean was adamant they should turn both cars round and head towards Jo’s last known location, while Sam thought they should split into two groups. The Winchesters were getting louder and were beginning to draw attention to their table.

“Oi mates, you might want to keep it down a bit, folks are starting to get curious” Harry gave them a pointed look and tilted his head towards the people two tables over who were quite clearly trying to listen in. “Don’t worry Hermione’s got us covered, but seriously keep the volume down.”

The brothers turned to look at Hermione who smiled and twirled her wand in her fingers.

“You’re going to turn them into frogs?” asked Sam incredulously.

Hermione, Ron and Harry all rolled their eyes at the youngest Winchester’s question.

“Yes Sam, I’m going to turn a table of muggles into frogs in the middle of a busy muggle diner. Honestly the things you Winchesters come out with. I’ve cast a privacy charm so that if people overhear our conversation, they’ll hear us talking about mundane things such as the weather and sport. While you two have been having a mini bitch fest at each other, we’ve been talking and Ron’s come up with what we think is a viable solution for both issues. Are you ready to hear it? Or do you want five minutes to finish swinging your handbags at each other?” Hermione had crossed her arms and was giving them the glare she reserved for breaking up fights between the Weasley clan.

Sam and Dean nodded, both feeling slightly embarrassed that they’d become so used to the trio’s presence that their fighting which they normally kept private was aired in public.

Ron gave a little cough to clear his throat “I’m sorry Dean, but it makes more sense for us to split into two teams. Harry and I can go with Sam to look for your friend, while you and Hermione investigate the poltergeist. Now regarding your friend’s disappearance, there is something we could try, it’s possible that magically scrying could help to locate her.”

“Why didn’t you mention this to begin with?” Dean asked interrupting Ron.

“Because we’re not sure how accurate it’s going to be, unless you happen to have a personal artefact of hers.” Ron paused and waited for an answer, the Winchesters shook their heads. “I was afraid you were going to say that, I’m not going to lie to you fellas what I’m about to suggest is up close and personal magic, you don’t have go through with it and we certainly can’t guarantee one hundred percent accuracy.”

“Clarify up close and personal” asked Sam warily.

“Both Harry and Hermione have the ability to read minds through a branch of magic called Legilimency, what we’re proposing to do, is to pair you off and for you to focus fully on Jo while which ever magic user you have chosen will get a feel of your friend from your surface thoughts and then they’ll do a remote scrying.”

“Back up a moment, you lot can read minds and you didn’t think to tell us? Have you been reading our minds this entire time?” exclaimed Dean, his eyes were wide with horror.

Harry leaned over and placed his wand on the table in front of Dean “It’s a specialised branch of magic and while both Hermione and myself are masters of both Legilimency and it’s counterpart Occlumency, Ron here is just considered to be proficient as his talents lie elsewhere. Most witches and wizards don’t bother to learn unless they have a natural ability, because it takes considerable bloody effort to learn and that’s if they can find a master willing to teach them. As for your second question, in order for me to perform legilimency on you, I would need to use my wand to help me focus, I think you’d remember that don’t you? Like Ron said, you don’t have to agree to this but if makes you feel better Hermione and I will swear a solemn vow on our magic not to look at anything other than what you show us, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the strongest vow we can give a muggle. The punishment to us for breaking our vow would be very detrimental to our health, magic takes vows seriously.”

Sam pushed Harry’s wand back towards him “So if you broke your vow, your magic could kill you?

The three Brits nodded. “Worst case scenario, yes. Best case scenario, we’d just suffer a severe loss of power and a shock to our magical core. But hey, we’d still be alive.” Hermione said matter of factly.

“So why would you offer to do this magical vow thingy if the risks were so high?” queried Dean with a frown on his face.

“Because we’re friends, that’s why Dean and it’s the most efficient way to get you to trust us. Time is of the essence, so you need to decide between you if you want us to go ahead. We’ll be waiting by the cars, the privacy charm will end once the booth is empty so you don’t have to worry about being overheard.” Hermione slid out of the booth followed by her best friends, once she was stood Hermione slipped a folded ten dollar bill under her coffee mug for their waitress and then walked out of the diner with Harry and Ron either side of her.

In the end Sam and Dean agreed to have their minds read, Dean had won the coin toss back in the booth and had chosen to have his mind read by Harry, not that Sam minded. In fact it was probably for the best considering the not so innocent thoughts he had about the raven haired Brit.

Hermione and Sam sat in the back of his blue Ford “It’s not going to hurt is it?” he asked.

“If you feel me inside your mind at all I’d be impressed at your sensitivity, not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but I’m damn good at what I do.” She raised her wand to his temple. “Just take a deep relaxing breath and think about Jo, I’m only doing a surface   
read so I’ll only be able to see what you think about okay?”

“Hermione, if you happen to see anything that isn’t related to Jo will you keep it a secret from Harry and Ron?”

“Yes Sam, I promise.” She replied giving him a soft motherly smile “But do me a favour and turn the puppy dog eyes off, a girl’s only got so much resistance. How you haven’t conquered the world with those, is beyond me. Are you ready?” 

Sam nodded, causing his hair to fall into his eyes. 

After she’d smoothed his hair back Hermione pointed her to his temple again and whispered the word Legilimens, once she felt she had enough images to work with Hermione released the spell and patted Sam’s knee “You’re free to go Sam, all I have to do is get the crystal off Harry and I’ll be able to begin scrying for Jo.”

“You’re finished?”Sam looked surprised “But I don’t feel any different.”

“And nor should you, I told you I was good Sammy.” She said with a wink “Come on, lets see if Harry and your stubborn mule of a brother are finished so we can cross reference our findings.”

The crystal dropped with a dull thump on the name Lexington situated in Dawson county.

“All signs say that this is the best place to start looking for her, I’m sorry we couldn’t be more specific.” Hermione folded up the map and handed it back to Sam. 

Sam and Dean stood side by side leaning against Sam’s Ford and watched as Hermione hugged Harry and Ron, whispering something to each of them causing to laugh.

“What do you think she said?” Sam asked his brother.

Dean shrugged “Who the hell knows, maybe it was a joke about tea and crumpets. Stay safe and find Jo quickly.” Dean said giving Sam a brotherly shoulder bump.

 

“You know I will.” Sam replied bumping shoulders back. He was saved from initiating what Dean would only call a chick flick moment by Hermione running up to him and hugging him tight for brief second, then letting him go.

“Come on Slowpoke, daylight’s wasting” Hermione poked Dean in his stomach as she passed.

“Hey, how come I didn’t get a hug too?” Dean asked after her, sounding almost petulant.

Hermione stuck her head out of the Impala’s passenger window “Maybe because I like Sammy more” she answered with a grin.

Sam laughed at the crestfallen look on his brother’s face “See you in a few days, if you survive Hermione.” he patted Dean’s back in a consolatory fashion as his big brother walked towards his car. It would be interesting to see how they interacted together after being on a case for a couple of days, he was undecided on how Hermione felt about Dean, but Sam knew for certain that his brother had the hots for the feisty witch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: As a Brit, I have to say that other than what I Google, watch on TV/film or ask my American friends for info, I don’t know a lot about the inner workings of American towns, so I’ll be taking artistic license with upcoming chapters regarding the poltergeist hunt. I just thought I’d give you fair warning, I will post this again in the next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

Dean had been sneaking sly looks at his travelling companion during the entire journey, it was weird to travel with a woman who didn’t feel the need to talk every minute of the day. She had spent a lot of time working on the case, scribbling down notes and cross checking facts, when Hermione had done all she could on the case she’d pulled out a book and asked him if he minded if she read for a while. Of course he didn’t mind, it meant that he could study her without her knowing.

A little sigh came from the passenger side and he turned his head briefly to see Hermione staring out the window at the Impala’s windscreen wipers that swished back and forth in a futile attempt to clear the deluge of rain that had been beating down on them for the last one hundred miles. The rain had started out as a light shower while they had stopped to grab a burger for dinner and then steadily increased to it’s current status of biblical storm.

“I think it’s probably best if we stop at the next motel and hunker down for the night.” Dean said breaking the silence, he was beginning to get eye strain from concentrating on the road so long.

At the next vacant motel sign Dean pulled into the parking lot and parked the Impala outside the reception, his forehead crinkled into a small frown the parking lot appeared to be quite full, so he crossed his fingers and hoped there were still a couple of rooms available. Dean turned up the collar on his battered, brown leather jacket and opened the car door to brave the vicious weather.

The motel reception was brightly lit causing Dean to blink till his eyes adjusted to the artificial brightness, the surly teenager, who was probably about eighteen sat behind the desk looking at him with boredom before his eyes flicked to a point just past Dean, the young man’s eyes brightened with interest. Dean could tell just by the teenager’s actions that Hermione had joined him in the office.

He turned to look at Hermione and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, she was going to be the death of him. No wonder the teenager had gotten excited, she looked like every man’s wet dream standing there dripping with rain, her thin, long sleeve blue top was stuck to her like a second skin, Dean could even make out the lacy outline of her bra under the wet material. He stepped up to the counter deliberately blocking Hermione from the youth’s view.

“We’d like two rooms for the night” Dean said giving the gangly teenager a fierce glare.

The youth visibly swallowed “I’m sorry Sir, but we only have one room available, we’ve had a rush of drop ins due to the storm.”

“Excellent, we’ll take it” Hermione said cheerfully, standing next to him and handing over a credit card.

The teenager handed over a key to Hermione deliberately avoiding Dean’s gaze and told her that the room was the last one on the ground floor at the far end.  
Dean must have lost control of some of his mental faculties because he just nodded dumbly when Hermione told him that she’d meet him at the room, if he wanted to park the car securely.

“Dude, she is so far out of your league. You’ve got to help a bro out and give me some tips on how to get a fine piece of ass like that.” The youth said as they both watched Hermione exiting the reception.

Dean might not be as tall as Sam but he could still intimidate this snot nosed punk, he narrowed his eyes and his voice dropped to a dangerously low timbre. “How about you show some respect towards women. How would you feel if somebody spoke about your mother or sister like that?”

The teenager lowered his head in shame.

Dean’s gaze softened, he didn’t know why but he actually felt a smidgen of sympathy for the lad “The best advice I can give you regarding women is this. Be yourself. The ladies love a guy with confidence, but never brag to your friends about any of your conquests.” he turned to leave and paused “One last thing, it’s true that chicks dig a bad boy but no matter what type of girl you’re seeing, you treat her like a lady and show her respect.” He left the office shaking his head, he must be getting soft in his old age, how did he go from wanting to rip the teenager’s head off to giving him dating advice.

He moved the car into the vacant spot outside the room Hermione had been given directions to and grabbed his and Hermione’s bag’s out of the trunk, he let himself into the motel room kicking the door shut behind him and dropping the bags on to the chair nearest the door.

Dean looked round the tiny room with dismay, not only was the bed just a standard double but there was a distinct lack of a couch, just a couple of chairs either side of a chest of drawers. He resigned himself to sleeping on the floor of the motel room, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before. The hunter tucked a pillow under his arm and was just folding the spare blanket when the bathroom door opened and Hermione stepped out.

She gave him a bright smile “Sorry about leaving you back there, but I was absolutely busting for the loo. I did think about transfiguring those chairs into a extra bed, but this place isn’t big enough to swing a cat around in, thank you by the way for bringing my bag in, you didn’t have to.” Hermione retrieved her bag from where it sat next to his and began taking things out of it before pausing. “Sorry Dean, I should have asked you which side of the bed you preferred to sleep on”

To say that he was shocked at her casualness at the thought that they would automatically share the bed was an understatement, he might be a ladies man but he would never presume. “Don’t worry about it, I was going to sleep on the floor anyway. John Winchester wasn’t exactly the greatest dad but he did teach me some manners.” Was that nervousness Dean was feeling in his stomach? All he knew was that Hermione was now arching that God damn, sexy as fuck eyebrow at him.

“That’s very thoughtful of you Dean. It is however, unnecessary because we’re both adults here. Unless you’re worried that I’ll lose control of the stick up my ass and somehow ravish you senseless during the night.”

Dean could see her eyes twinkling with amusement, she was enjoying teasing him. An image of Hermione on her knees in front of him, looking up at him with the same twinkle in her eyes as she ever so slowly unbuckled the belt on his jeans, followed by each button. Cursing his over active imagination, Dean felt it was only right to tease Hermione back “Well as long as you’re sure Princess, I’m going to grab a shower. Oh by the way just so you know, I don’t own any pyjamas I’m a boxers and t-shirt kind of guy.” He told her accompanied with a wink. Why the fuck did he just say that? He asked himself.

“No matter, we can be pyjama-less together.” 

He hurried into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. She was going to kill him with the words that came out of her mouth and that accent of hers.

In the other room Hermione flopped face down onto the bed, what was it about Dean sodding Winchester that disabled the filter between her head and her mouth, she muffled a brief scream of frustration into the flat pillow and then feeling slightly better she quickly changed into the over-sized and well worn Gryffindor captain jumper that she had purloined from Bill and Charlie’s old room back at the Burrow many years ago. She smiled at the memory of the first time Charlie had seen her in his jumper. Fun times indeed, that reminded her she hadn’t emailed him since before leaving the UK, she climbed into bed and was about to open her laptop when she heard Dean finishing up in the bathroom, so instead she put the laptop on the floor and feigned being asleep. 

“You asleep already Princess? I can’t say I blame you, it’s been a long ass day. I hope your snores are daintier than Sammy’s, man he sounds like a rusty buzz saw.”

Hermione kept her breathing steady and her eyes closed as she listened to Dean move about the room chattering away to himself, the light clicked off and she felt the mattress dip under his body weight, he shuffled backwards towards the middle of the bed and then lay perfectly still. Hermione could feel the heat radiating off him and a small part of her wanted to curl into that heat but instead recited the properties of moonstone and it’s applications in potions till she fell asleep for real.

Dean woke to the unfamiliar sensation of being the little spoon, Hermione was pressed up against him and her arm had some how wormed it’s way under his, so that her palm was splayed flat against his anti-possession tattoo. It was weird how this small gesture even done in Hermione’s sleep made Dean feel safe and protected, he leaned over to check the time on his phone, the bright screen showed it to be nearly half three in the morning, with a jaw cracking yawn he laid his head back on the crappy pillow and allowed himself to drift back off to sleep.  
“Whoa, Black Betty, bam ba lam. Whoa, Black Betty, bam ba lam.”

The tinny sound of Ram Jam playing broke through the barriers of Dean’s dream and succeeded in bringing him back to reality, blindly reaching for his phone he answered it with a sleep roughened “ ‘Lo, whaddya want?”.

He was greeted with a very bright and cheery British voice on the other end “Good morning Mr Winchester, this is a courtesy call to tell you that coffee and bagels will be delivered in roughly twenty minutes. I advise you to use this time wisely, because I will eat this delicious smelling breakfast bagel that just so happens to have all the trimmings if I’m kept waiting.” 

The phone line went dead. Dean stared at it with disbelief for a moment before going to place it back on the bedside table next to his car keys and that’s when he realised they were missing. His phone chirped signaling he had a text message.

**Btw, don’t worry Baby is safe and sound, I’ve taken good care of her. Eta 17 mins.**

He couldn’t help but snort at her text and acting on impulse changed her contact details from Hermione to Witchy Woman.

Dean ended up taking longer than the twenty minutes assigned to him, thanks to his dick and his brain remembering specific details from his dream as he showered in the tiny cubicle. 

By the time Dean had showered, dressed, packed his stuff and exited the room Hermione was parked up and leaning against the side of the Impala drinking from one of the two take out cups she was holding. He threw his bag on to the backseat and gratefully accepted the large cup Hermione offered him.

Dean took a sip and closed his eyes momentarily in satisfaction as the ‘Hot as Hell’, extra strong and tooth-rottingly sweet black coffee hit his taste buds.

“I’m sorry for not waking you to let you know I was borrowing the car, but you looked like you were having a good dream and I couldn’t bring myself to wake you from it.”

Dean shrugged Hermione’s apologies off “For coffee like this I’m not complaining, but why on earth were you up at the ass crack of dawn anyway?”

Taking the lid off her drink Hermione downed its content and put the now empty cup into a nearby bin before turning and answering him “I had to get in touch with someone back home to make sure our cover story was in place before we head out to the high school tomorrow.”

“What do you mean cover story, what’s wrong with just winging it? That’s what me and Sam usually do.”  
Hermione’s phone began to ring, she opened the passenger door and grabbed a brown paper bag and her phone off the dash. “Would you go and check us out, while I take this call?” she asked handing him the bag and his car keys, then proceeding to answer her phone with a brisk “Granger here, tell me it’s sorted.”

Dean didn’t hear the rest of her conversation as she’d wandered slightly away from the car, so she could take her call in private. He decided that it was probably easier to do as he was told and handed the motel room key into the reception before delving into the bag to see what Hermione had bought him.

The moan of delight that escaped from his mouth as he bit into a heavily stacked multiseed bagel sounded like it had come straight off a porn set. He grinned to himself round a mouthful of bacon, egg and cheese, he could imagine Sam giving him the stink eye for eating ‘a heart attack in the making’, but it just wasn’t in him to turn down free food especially when it was exactly what he would have ordered for himself.

His phone beeped signaling he received another message, he threw his rubbish into the bin and got himself comfy behind the wheel before reading the almost nonsensical text from Sam.

**Jst rll n2 twn, ringya l8r w upd**

Dean rolled his eyes at his brothers text and quickly texted back.

**For someone who was doing a law degree your spelling is crap!**

His phone quickly chirped again.

**Iz txt spch, get w it gramps :P**

**Bite me, Bitch.**

He texted back grinning, the phone chirped once more just as Hermione was getting into the car.

“Aren’t you going to check that? It could be important.” she asked.

Dean started up the engine and took a brief moment to enjoy the familiar rumble beneath him before answering, he turned his head and flashed her a cock sure grin “It was just Sam telling me what an awesome brother I am.” He couldn’t help letting out a soft chuckle at Hermione’s snort of disbelief “Come on then Princess, spill the beans. What have you been up to besides getting awesome breakfast food?”

After tuning the radio into a local channel that appeared to be playing half decent music Dean eased the Impala out of the motel parking lot and back out onto the highway and settled in to drive his baby while enjoying a friendly argument with Hermione over Star Trek vs Star Wars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter has been rather slow to write considering the time in the story it actually encompasses, I’ve left it where I have just to give me a fresh outlook on the chapter where they visit the high school. I apologise for the length of time it’s taken for this to be uploaded and thank you all for sticking with me. I also want to thank all the fabulous ladies in the fanfiction writers club over on Facebook for putting up with and answering my banal questions about everyday stuff in America.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for the length of time it's taken for me to get this stubborn ass chapter out, but I hope you all enjoy it. Xx

They’d made good time, arriving in the picturesque town shortly before lunch, Hermione asked Dean to drop her off at the small hotel located on main street and she would take their overnight bags and book a couple of rooms for them before heading over to the library to do some local research while Dean visited his hunter friend who lived just outside of the town.

The hunter and the witch agreed to meet up around six pm in the family run bar and grill across from the hotel. Hermione exited the town’s library slinging her backpack over her shoulder and began walking the three blocks to the restaurant where she’d arranged to meet Dean, she was feeling quite pleased with her research today and surprisingly she’d found that she had missed having him around. When Dean wasn’t being a total pain in the arse he was actually quite fun to talk to, full of surprising facts and general knowledge. Her treacherous inner voice wouldn’t shut up about the fact that Dean was easy on the eyes. 

Hermione almost had a minor aneurysm that morning when she had woken up to find herself wrapped round him, her body molding itself to his, but her arm was curled over him in a protective manner, practically hugging him to death. Her pulse raced faster as she allowed herself a brief moment to remember the way his chest muscles had felt so warm and firm under her palm and fingertips, it had taken an enormous amount of will power on her part to actually get out of bed before she ended up doing something stupid and reckless like giving his bum a squeeze or running her fingers along his muscular thighs. 

As Hermione entered the bar she gave her head a minuscule shake to get rid of the R rated wishful thinking that her brain was playing in technicolor. She spotted Dean sitting in a corner booth idly picking at the label on his beer bottle, Hermione stopped at the bar and purchased two fresh bottles of beer and headed over to his table. 

“Wotcher Winchester, how’s it hanging?” she asked cheerfully, slipping gracefully into the seat opposite the green eyed hunter and sliding one of the bottles across the table to him. 

Dean’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as he gave her a cheeky smile and answered “Heavy and to the left thanks for asking.” He took a swig from the fresh bottle and licked his lips “So how’d it go today, find out anything interesting?” 

Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a medium sized notepad, she flicked through it’s pages till she found the ones she had written earlier. “Okay, so I have spent the afternoon scouring the local archives for any unusual deaths, murders or suicides but I can’t find anything that even remotely relates to the school. The school itself appears to be just a bog standard school, it was built thirty years ago and as far as I can tell from the land records there seems to be nothing strange with the plot of land it’s built upon.” 

Dean pulled a face “Well isn’t that just freaking great” he said in a tone heavy with sarcasm “So if it’s not a poltergeist, what is it?” 

“I didn’t say it wasn’t a poltergeist. I’m saying that it’s not a normal poltergeist and certainly not one that can be got rid of by doing a simple salt and burn.” She said in a tone that Ron and Harry would call “her know it all voice”, Hermione took a moment to finish her drink and at Dean’s impatient look and raised eyebrows she continued. “What I think we’ve got here, is a chaotic spirit which is born from excess human energies and an influx of magic.” 

“I’m sorry. What?” Dean asked interrupting Hermione. 

Hermione withheld a sigh “To put it simply, high schools are a melting pot full of teenage emotions. Anger, angst, despair, horniness, pride” she ticked them off on her fingers “and so forth, now normally this just dissipates into the wind but if you add something that is giving off enough magical mojo, then all of those ingredients gets blended up and voila. One magical poltergeist or chaotic spirit is born.” 

Dean frowned “What kind of magical object do you think we’re talking about here? Hex bags and witches or artifact?” 

“I won’t know until tomorrow when we check out the school, but I’m hoping that as it’s a fairly young spirit that once we remove whatever is powering it then the spirit should eventually fade away or at the very least not get any stronger. But only time will tell I’m afraid.” She reached into her bag and retrieved a small brown leather backed book that looked like it had seen better days, Hermione thumbed through the pages till she had found what she had been searching for. “Here” she said handing it over to Dean “this will give you a bit more insight on them and while you’re catching up I think it’s time to order some food because I am bloody ravenous.” Her stomach decided to emphasise her point by choosing that moment to let off a loud growling noise. 

Dean laughed and leaned back in his seat, pretending to hold up his hands in surrender “Should I be worried about you eating me if you don’t get fed soon?” 

Don’t reply with innuendo. Don’t reply with innuendo! The sensible side of Hermione’s brain chanted, however the countless years of friendly cheeky bantering with Ron’s brothers had made answering back with “Only if you misbehave.” almost instantaneous, not to mention the accompanying wink. 

“Excuse me?” spluttered Dean choking on his beer. 

Desperate to keep her cool and to hide the fact her cheeks felt like they were on fire Hermione hid behind a menu and changed the subject entirely. 

“So how do you know so much about magical poltergeists?” Dean asked a short while later, pulling a weird face as if the words magical poltergeists left a nasty taste in his mouth. 

Hermione took time to explain about Peeves, the different ghosts that reside in Hogwarts and all of Peeve’s antics during her years at the school, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of victory as Dean let loose with a full on belly laugh as Hermione imitated Professor McGonagal’s Scottish brogue telling Peeves that the chandelier unscrewed the other way, an incident that Harry had witnessed during their fifth year at Hogwarts. 

The hunter and the witch lost track of time as they spent the evening swapping stories of the crazy antics they’d gotten up to in their past not to mention the obligatory embarrassing stories of Sam, Harry and Ron, it came as bit of a shock to Hermione and Dean when the young waiter who came to collect their empty bottles told them that the tavern would be closing shortly. At some point during the evening they had paid for dinner and had progressed from the booth where they’d eaten to one of the soft brown leather sofas in front of a fake log fire. 

Hermione pushed herself to her feet and held her hand out to Dean “Come on old man, I’ll be a good Samaritan and assist you across the road to our hotel” she said ignoring the faster beat of her heart as he placed his warm calloused hand in hers and tugged him up on his feet. 

“You’re stronger than you look Princess” remarked Dean sounding surprised. 

“It must be all those years of putting tiaras on my noble head paying off” Hermione joked rolling her eyes at him. 

“Geez. What is it with you Brits and sarcasm?” Dean asked as he held the tavern door open for her. 

Hermione shoved her hands in her pockets “I have absolutely no idea what you’re going on about, what is this sarcasm you speak of?” She said looking at Dean innocently. 

Hermione nodded hello to the member of staff manning the front desk and led the way to the lift, inside the lift Hermione handed Dean the key to his room “You’ll be pleased to know that you get the whole bed to yourself tonight…” she paused as she realised how that sounded. 

“It wasn’t exactly a hardship sharing a bed with you Hermione,” Dean replied softly. 

When the lift doors pinged open on their floor, Hermione and Dean walked down the red carpeted hallway in a charged silence.  

“Well this is me, you’re just next door” Hermione said putting her key card in the door, she turned to face him leaning her body against the door jamb. For some inexplicable reason Hermione’s legs felt like they’d been hit with a jelly legs jinx. 

The hunter and witch stared at each other in that generic cream hallway, the seconds seeming to last forever. 

Dean rubbed the back of his neck “You know what Hermione? I had fun tonight.” 

“There’s no need to sound so surprised Dean,” Hermione replied, the hidden laughter evident in her voice “I had fun too.” 

Dean placed the hand that had been rubbing the back of his neck on the wall next to Hermione, his body automatically leaning in closer to hers “The night is still young, do you fancy a nightcap?” 

The seven inches height difference between them and his close proximity meant Hermione had to really tilt her head up to look at Dean’s face, when her warm brown eyes met his gold flecked green, the air around them crackled with intensity. Dean’s eyes dropped to Hermione’s lips as her tongue appeared briefly to moisten them. 

Numerous responses and desires passed through Hermione’s brain, however her common sense won out. “I’d like that Dean, unfortunately I don’t think that’s a good idea as I’ve got to get up in a couple of hours to ring London, that time difference is a right pain in the arse.” She wasn’t lying to Dean, she really did have to ring the office but not as early as she’d implied, they both knew what would happen if they had a ‘nightcap’ and as much as she wanted him, the timing just wasn’t right. 

She couldn’t help but feel just a bit guilty as Dean’s expression went from open and happy to polite and closed. “No worries, another time then.” he said taking a step back from her door. 

“Sweet dreams Princess, see you at breakfast.” Dean walked the short distance to his door and gave her a small salute before entering his room closing the door behind him. 

Hermione let out a long audible sigh and retreated into her room, her decision weighing heavily on her mind, she flopped heavily onto the soft queen sized bed knowing that sleep would be a long time coming that night.

To an outsider any interactions between Dean and Hermione would seem friendly and normal but if a person who knew them well was observing the witch and hunter during breakfast and then later in the car on the way to the school it would be obvious from the under lying tension that something had changed between them.

Hermione did her best to stamp out the embers of jealousy that flared up every time Dean flashed the vice principal who was showing them around the school his dimpled smile. However irritated Hermione was feeling with herself and by association Dean she couldn’t deny he had extremely good hunting instincts, it was as they were finishing up the tour and were just chatting to Ms Ford the high school's vice principal in her office that he discretely got her attention and nodded at a small viking statue carved from stone that was on a shelf situated behind the vice principal's desk

“Oh my, what an interesting statue. Where ever did you find it?” Hermione asked, leaned forward to get a closer look.

The vice principal visibly preened as Hermione gushed over the statue. “I found it in a little flea market earlier this year when I was visiting my sister in New York, I was celebrating my divorce" She looked directly at Dean as she spoke. 

Hermione tuned out of the conversation as she felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck rise, the spirit was in the room with them, in fact she was pretty sure that it had been following them around the school, keeping just far enough away so they didn't notice it. Pretending to pick up her pen off the floor Hermione cast a discrete but simple spell that allowed her to get a feel for the spirit's power level, it was as she was sitting back in her chair that she felt a ghostly finger insert itself into her ear and wiggle, aware that Ms Ford and Dean were both looking at her expectantly Hermione gritted her teeth against the natural response of shrieking and raised an eyebrow at Dean hoping he'd get the hint and fill her in on what she had missed.

Luckily Dean had recieved her message loud and clear and proceeded to tell her that they were invited to watch the game tonight as the Principle's guests and that he'd agreed on her behalf because it would be a shame for her to go back to the UK and not to have watched a high school football game. Despite the fact she had no desire to watch American football Hermione smiled and agreed knowing that tonight would be the ideal time to come back and switch the viking statue out with a fake.

After leaving the school Hermione asked Dean to take her to the nearest hardware or art store.

"Are you going to share with the rest of the class why we're going shopping?" the hunter asked, his thumbs tapping out a rhythm on the black leather steering wheel.

Hermione resisted the urge to rub the ear that the spirit had 'wet willied' "I need a small tin of uv paint just so I can make sure that the spirit stays locked to the school, I certainly don't want him hitching a ride home with us. That reminds me, do you have an iron strong box in the trunk?"

"Yeah, I double checked this morning before breakfast, it's big enough for that weird ass viking statue." Dean turned his head to look at Hermione "So, are you excited to be watching your first football game tonight?" he asked with a grin.

Hermione gave him a wicked grin "Are you kidding me, all those hot, sweaty young adults in peak physical health running around in tight trousers, of course I'm looking forward to it." she paused for a second, enjoying the sound of Dean's laughter reverberating around the Impala. "When we get back to the hotel, it might be an idea for you to type in the number of a local taxi firm into your phone." 

"And why would I want to do that?" Dean asked looking confused.

"Well I think Ms Ford was wanting to give you some oral homework" Hermione said with a slight snigger. "Tell me Dean, are you hot for teacher?"

"And people think I'm the immature one" grumbled Dean under his breath as he pulled into a empty parking spot. "Come on Princess let's get your paint and then you can buy me dinner".

Just before half time Hermione and Dean excused themselves from Ms Ford's company with the excuse that Dean wanted to beat the half time queues at the concessions stand.

Hermione reached into her bag and handed Dean a small tin of paint with a post it note stuck to it, thin paintbrush and a compass, "If you paint that rune near the bottom of the wall at the North and East points of the school and I'll do the same for the South and West points, then we'll meet back here." 

Dean nodded and turned to leave "Just a second Dean" Hermione said giving him a quick tap him on his head with her wand.

"What the hell was that?" hissed Dean as what felt like cold runny eggs ran down his back.

"Don't get your panties in a twist" Hermione hissed back "it's just an disillusion charm to help you get around without being spotted, just try not to make too much noise or draw attention to yourself."

Hermione grinned to herself as she set off for the southern end of the school, that was twice today she'd made Dean grumble under his breath not that she was keeping score or anything.

Ten minute later found Hermione and Dean outside a side door of the school, Dean tried the handle on the off chance that it had been left unlocked, when it didn't budge he just shrugged and unrolled his trusty lock picking kit.

"You know that's not necessary don't you?" 

"Oh really, and I suppose you just happen to have a spell for unlocking doors do you? Dean replied with a hint of irritation lacing his voice,he still hadn't gotten used to the disillusionment spell.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and pulled her wand from where she'd stashed it in her bun "Alohamora".

Dean ignored the smugness that was rolling off the witch and opened the door just wide enough for them to slip through.

He switched on his flashlight and quickly led the way back to the vice principals office, he grudgingly admitted to himself that her lock picking spell was pretty cool as Hermione entered the room first. They'd gone over the plan to remove the statue during dinner, he would place the original in the lock box, that some how fit in Hermione's handbag and Hermione would magic up a copy that would fade after a couple of days. Dean waited until Hermione gave him the signal to switch the statues and then swiftly wrapped the viking statue in a silk cloth, because he'd learned the hard way to avoid touching magical objects with bare skin.

This had to be one of the easiest poltergeist hunts he'd ever been on mused Dean as he placed the locked box back into Hermione's bag, he was just about to say as much to Hermione when a ghostly figure swept through the office knocking papers off the desk and cracking picture frames as it passed through the far wall, the entity turned and cackled as it set the school fire alarm off.

Dean's immediate reaction was to hightail it out of there as soon as he heard the school janitor come along to check out the disturbance.

"Fucking hell!" exclaimed Hermione in a high pitched whisper as she took in the state of the office. Dean couldn't disagree with her words. He watched with wide eyed wonder as she waved her wand in a set of intricate movements and the room appeared to put itself back together. 

The witch and the hunter froze as they heard people talking in the corridor.

Hermione swore as she realised that they were about to be discovered "Dean do you trust me?" she asked as she grabbed her handbag and stepping right into Dean's personal space.

"What?" Dean asked confused "of course I do"

Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist "Good to know. Now just remember to breath."

He didn't have to reply as in that next second he felt like his whole being was being squeezed into a tiny speck before instantly enlarging again except now he felt like he was about to throw up. Dean felt a small hand rub his back. "What. The. Fuck. Was. That." he managed to get out while trying to get his breathing back under control.

Hermione looked a little sheepish "I do apologise for that but apparating was the quickest way to escape without getting noticed."

"Apper what?"

"Apparate, it's a form of Wizard travel, I realise that you're feeling disorientated but we need to get back to the stands before we're missed."

Dean suddenly felt a lot better as Hermione linked her fingers with his, the warmth of her palm spread through him like a soothing shot of top shelf whisky, he barely noticed as Hermione made her apologies to Ms Ford as she claimed to be feeling unwell and would be unable to watch the rest of the game.

The ride back to the hotel was full of apologies and explanations with Dean reluctantly agreeing that despite his objections Hermione's course of action was the correct one. 

After a beer or two in the hotel's bar to unwind, they headed back to their rooms although this time it felt like a reverse of the night before. Dean felt like a deer caught in the headlights, Hermione had walked him to his door and stood there for a brief moment, her gaze searching his face, looking for answers to questions he didn't even know.

She gave him a soft half smile "Goodnight Dean, I'll see you tomorrow."

He watched as she turned and entered her room without giving him a second glance, at the sound of her door closing with a quiet click Dean let out a long sigh and decided that the best course of action would be drinking that fifth of whisky he had stashed in his bag and pay per view porn.


End file.
